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Friday, June 27, 2014

News broke today that between now and April 2017, we'll be getting a Pacific Rim animated series, a comic book, and most importantly, a sequel! Let the main man, Guillermo del Toro tell you himself.

Pacific Rim was one of the most fun movies to come out of 2013. It combined my love of giant robots and giant monster movies. While the acting was nothing to write home about, the action sequences between the Jaegers and Kaiju was ridiculously epic and fun to watch. I am totally psyched for this sequel which I'd love to see in IMAX. Pacific Rim 2 is scheduled for an April 7, 2017 release date.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

I'm not talking just about 24 returning to TV. I'm talking about 24 returning to being a BADASS show! And it hasn't just been these last two episodes, although they have been outstanding. The whole season of Live Another Day has been stellar. 24 has managed to seem fresh, new, and exciting while traveling down some very familiar roads.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

While this year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Caped Crusader, June 23rd also marks the 25th Anniversary of the release of Tim Burton's Batman which starred Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. And my how times have changed. Take a walk down memory lane and check out the original trailer to the movie.

The folks over at CineFix have done it again. A few months ago, they gave the 8-Bit Cinema treatment to Fight Club. Now they've done it again to Kill Bill and the results are marvelous. It's in the style of Karateka, Shinobi, and Bruce Lee, and I want to play this so badly. The video takes you through all the fights spanning the two movies, and there's even a mini-game based on escaping the coffin. Watch this and tell me you don't want to play it.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

It's the second trailer to one of my favorite franchises, yet it's one of my least anticipated movies of the summer. Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles has changed the turtle design so much they look like grotesque human/alien hybrids. There's even a joke in the trailer wondering if they're aliens, so you gotta believe they're in on the joke. This trailer shows off a lot more of the Shredder, and they've pumped him up to ridiculous proportions. But before you mock that, it's clear they took some cues from the Super Shredder in Secret of the Ooze. Oh wait, that movie was kind of horrible too. And can someone explain to me how the ooze made Shredder's armor grow as well?!? Anyway, I can't hide my disappointment anymore, here's the trailer!

Monday, June 23, 2014

I still haven't gotten around to building mine yet, but here's a stop motion video of the LEGO Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters being built. This must have taken a crap ton of patience. Patience that I don't have, so my inevitable time lapse video will definitely not be as creative as this. But check it out!

Okay, I clearly haven't fully let Game of Thrones go yet. So I decided to put together a list of the moments that made me go "What the frak?!?" or "Holy Crap!" These are the moments that either stood out as game changers or were just flat out great. These moments made me glad I watch this show no matter how heartbreaking or awesome it was. So here are my top 10 moments from Game of Thrones Season 4.

10 The Walking Frozen Dead

As Game of Thrones has progressed, it has trended more and more into fantasy. Sure we've seen dragons and White Walkers, and the last episode introduced us to skeletons that burst out of the ground, but nothing stood out more than episode 4, Oathkeeper, when we saw a White Walker dressed like a nobleman turn one of Craster's babies into one of their own. It proved they weren't just mindless ice zombies. They're organized! And Stannis proved that an organized army is a deadly army.

This fan made Star Wars trailer done in the style of Guardians of the Galaxy hits all the right comedy notes. Which essentially proves that you can cut a trailer any way you want to get a desired effect. Star Wars isn't the laugh out loud joyride this trailer makes it out to be, and Guardians of the Galaxy probably won't be either. I'm just hoping they haven't put all the funny parts in the trailer like they almost always do...

If you thought Dany chaining her dragons was hard to watch, try it to the tune of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." In this spoof on her ASPCA commercials, the results are as heartbreaking as watching those sheltered animals. Aw crap, those poor dragons!

Apes with guns?!? Seriously, how can humans fight against that? It's full on apes vs humanity in the latest, and final trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The previous trailers were all teases compared to this one which kind of lays out the plot of the movie. The CGI apes are spectacular, and Gary Oldman is in it so it has to be good right? Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens July 11th.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

After an exceptional downer of a season where the bad guys just seemed to be steamrolling everyone else, the season finale of Game of Thrones, The Children offered a glimmer of hope in that the good guys may be down, but they are definitely not out. Let's go over what happened, and what's in store for next season.

Note: I haven't read the books so any commentary I make is completely based on the show.

A Late Cavalry is Better Than No Cavalry

"Your father was an honorable man." -Stannis of Ned Stark

Good news everybody! Jon Snow is not dead! In fact he's gone from being the odds on favorite to die these past 2 weeks to one of the safest guys in the realm. Safe is a relative term of course. I just mean no one's actively trying to kill him anymore. After he wandered into the Wildling camp to assassinate Mance Rayder under the guise of negotiating with him, backup finally arrived. Like the Riders of Rohan being led by Gandalf the morning after the Battle at Helm's Deep, Stannis and his army made short work of the Wildlings. That's right Crows, you are not alone. And I never thought I would be so happy to see Stannis.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

There's a new Guardians of the Galaxy trailer! And it definitely has a different tone than all the previous ones. This one is more in line with most other trailers out there eschewing most of the comedy and focusing on the drama. There's new footage of when Star Lord was a child, a new shot or two of Ronan the Accuser, and a little more of Rocket Raccoon being an ass. The tone has almost been completely flipped which is a little puzzling to me since I greatly enjoyed all the other trailers and felt pretty meh about this one. This is a United Kingdom trailer, so maybe the comedy aspect wasn't tracking well there? I don't know, but here it is and judge for yourself. And remember Guardians of the Galaxy opens August 1st, and it opens July 31st in Ireland and the UK.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Casey Kasem passed away yesterday at the age of 82. Kasem was the voice of my generation in the 80's and 90's on the radio, you know that thing they had before mp3's made it obsolete? It's hard to think of a song from the 80's without thinking of him introducing that song prefaced by a listener request letter. But more than that, he was also the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo,

Thursday, June 12, 2014

In the latest installment of Clueless Gamer, Conan O'Brien got to play Super Smash Bros. which doesn't even come out until later this year. And he pretty much treats the game the same way I do, with button mashing and a lot of screaming. ;) The game features a ton of characters from Nintendo's most popular franchises. They even have the trainer from Wii Fit!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

After last week's episode where the bad guys just kept getting the upper hand, and one of my favorite good guys was dealt a crushing defeat, I expected nothing but the worst on The Watchers on the Wall. I prepared for Jon Snow and Sam to die. I expected the Wildlings to burn Castle Black to the ground. And I expected the Thenns to feast on dead Crows. To my utmost surprise, none of that happened, and I got to save my adorable cat videos for another day.

The episode was pretty straightforward. The men of the Night's Watch fought off the Wildling attack from both sides, brave Crows died defending the gate against a giant, Ygritte died in Jon Snow's arms, and it's all just a reprieve because the Wildlings are going to attack again the next night. Let's run through the episode's most memorable moments.

Note: I haven't read the books so any commentary I make is completely based on the show.

Sam's Maturity

Not really one specific moment, but throughout the episode Samwell Tarly really stepped up, much like another famous Sam, namely Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings. Neither Sam's are stars but they both shone brightly and provided support when needed. In this episode, Sam protected Gilly by stashing her in a locked cellar. While he was out, he calmed down Pyp multiple times, helped him reload, and even kept up with the witty one liners. After Pyp died, he killed a Thenn, and motivated Olly to fight, all without seemingly breaking a sweat.

Has it really been 20 years since the first Dumb and Dumber when we were introduced to half-wits Harry and Lloyd? The film confirmed Jim Carrey as a certifiable box office draw and it introduced us to the Farrelly brothers who went on to direct some great comedies like Kingpin, There's Something About Mary, and Me, Myself, & Irene. Well the gang's back for the sequel. Outside of the "most annoying sound in the world," the first movie was ridiculously funny. If Dumb and Dumber To is more of the same stuff, count me interested.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Printers aren't usually the first thing on my mind, but robots generally pop into my head multiple times a day. That's why this commercial advertising Canon's line of PIXUS printers is so interesting. It uses Gundam models and printouts of Gundam models as mind bending illusions. It's pretty fascinating to look at. Can you tell what's real and what isn't?

Obviously these printouts only look 3D from a certain angle but it's still impressive how they did it. Here's a short behind the scenes video which explains a lot of how they shot the commercial.

A couple of weeks ago, an Arkham Knight trailer was released touting actual gameplay but it really looked more like cutscenes from the game. Nonetheless, it was a cool trailer. Now, we finally got some real gameplay courtesy of E3, and it looks amazing! You get to see Batman gliding through Gotham as he always does. But you also get to see some of the Batmobile action as it basically can turn into a really mobile tank. After a little bit of fighting, the video feed starts malfunctioning, and the Scarecrow is introduced, and his character design is the kind of stuff that gives people nightmares. Too bad this was delayed until 2015.

Mark Hamill has his place in nerd history playing Luke Skywalker and voicing the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. In a recent interview with "Inside the Magic" at Disney World's Star Wars Weekends, Hamill was asked to perform dialogue between these two characters. And Hamill is a really good sport about it!

Monday, June 9, 2014

The good stuff just keeps coming out of E3. The trailer for Nathan Drake's latest adventure just came out, and with a title like "A Thief's End," one has to wonder if this is the end of the franchise? In the trailer, a weary Drake awakens washed up on a beach. A conversation between Drake and Sully details how Drake has been "out of the game" for a long time, and how he wants back in for one last adventure. And the camera pans over to reveal skeletons in cages over some really ominous music. Add Uncharted 4 as one of the reasons to buy a PS4 in 2015.

A few weeks ago, Halo 5: Guardians was announced for the Xbox One. While that's not coming out until late 2015, you can still get your Halo fix on Microsoft's newest console on November 11th when Halo: The Master Chief Collection launches. Yes, it's a re-release, but it's a GIANT re-release. The collection will include all 4 previous Halo games and they all get a bump running at 1080p and at 60 frames per second. Achievement whores can rejoice as the game will come with all new achievements totaling 4,000 in gamerscore. And every multiplayer map, over 100 in total will also be included, and dedicated servers (finally!) will be handling all the mulitplayer carnage.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Have you ever watched Game of Thrones and thought to yourself, yeah I wanna be beheaded, or poisoned, or have my head crushed by a giant, or get stabbed in the heart at a wedding? Well if you play your cards right, you can have that AND a chance to meet George R.R. Martin.

Martin is asking for donations to help out the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and the Food Depot of Santa Fe. The money will go to helping improve the habitat for the wolves and your donations will garner you anything from a thank you e-card or t-shirt to an appearance in one of his future novels complete with grisly death. All donations enter you into a contest where the grand prize is dinner with Martin, a helicopter ride to the Sanctuary, and all the while you can keep asking/pestering him as to why he keeps killing off your favorite characters and why he still writes on a computer that uses DOS. Anyway, you can hear it straight from the author's mouth below, and you can visit the donation page at prizeo.com/grrm for more details.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

This weekend marks the official 30th Anniversary of when Ghostbusters was released to theaters. There's already a traveling art show which I detailed here, and a LEGO set that just came out. Now, word from Entertainment Weekly is a restored and remastered Ghostbusters will be hitting theaters on August 29th. And on September 16th, a new Blu-Ray set marking the 30th & 25th Anniversaries of Ghostbusters 1 & 2 will be coming out as well. Now excuse me as I jump for joy... =D

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

If you're still not over what happened on the last episode of Game of Thrones, this little interview might help you cope. In it Pedro Pascal talks about...

Spoilers!

What Oberyn Martell's funeral would be like. Pascal imagines it including bonfires, Tex-Mex, and most importantly, dead Lannisters. So please don't fret. It's a celebration! Give the interview a look below.

Monday, June 2, 2014

As far as fighting games go, I'm a Street Fighter devotee. But I appreciate just how ludicrous the Mortal Kombat franchise has gotten over the years, and I did play the hell out of the 2011 reboot, and the MK inspired Injustice: Gods Among Us based on DC superheroes. The trailer for the next game in the franchise, Mortal Kombat X just dropped and features two of the games' most recognizable characters, Scorpion and Sub-Zero. It looks cool and it looks like they've added the interactive environments they had in Injustice. The game is scheduled to be released sometime in 2015.